scott mclaughlin

Average East: Bruins haven't been great, but neither has anyone else in conference

If you had to describe the Bruins' season to this point, you'd probably say something like "good but not great." Given the fact that in the last month the Bruins have gone from winning four straight to losing four of five to winning four straight to collapsing against Ottawa in their most recent game, the word "inconsistent" might come to mind. And given that their young defensemen are still developing and that their second and third lines are still jelling, "work in progress" would be fairly accurate, too.

Now that we're just about a quarter of the way through the season, it's worth taking a look around the Eastern Conference to see how the Bruins stack up. And when we do that, we find that despite whatever inconsistencies and growing pains they've gone through, the Bruins are in better shape than pretty much everyone else in what appears to be a mediocre East.

(If you expand to the entire NHL, it's a bit of a different story since you could easily make the argument that the West has four, five, maybe even six teams better than anyone in the East right now.)

At 12-6-1, the Bruins are currently second in the Atlantic Division, three points behind the conference-leading Lightning. They're second in the conference in points percentage and tied for first in non-shootout wins. They're first in total goal differential and first in five-on-five goal differential.

Despite losing Andrew Ference and integrating young, offensive-minded defensemen into the lineup, the Bruins have still been a very good defensive team. They're fourth in the East in Corsi (five-on-five shot attempts) against and fifth in shots on goal against, but they're first in goals against thanks to the outstanding play of Tuukka Rask. The Bruins netminder ranks second in the NHL in save percentage and third in five-on-five save percentage among goalies with at least seven starts. The B's have also killed off 28 straight penalties and now rank third in the East in penalty-killing.

The offense hasn't been quite as impressive, as the Bruins rank seventh in the East in goals, eighth in shots on goal, sixth in Corsi for and ninth on the power play. While the top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla has been very good, Brad Marchand's slow start and injuries to Loui Eriksson and Carl Soderberg have prevented the second and third lines from really getting going.

There is plenty of reason to think the offense will improve, though. And even without it really clicking yet, the Bruins have been a solid all-around team. In addition to the goal differentials mentioned earlier, the Bruins have the second-best Corsi percentage in the East.

There are other solid teams in the East, but they all have just as many question marks as the Bruins, if not more. Let's take a look at the ones in playoff position as of Sunday night.

Lightning (14-6-0, 28 points, first in Atlantic)
The Lightning are 2-1-0 since losing Steven Stamkos to a broken leg, but it's obviously still too early to really get a good read on how they'll play without one of the game's best players. They lead the East in goals and rank second in shooting percentage and five-on-five goal differential, and while they have other good players up front, it's probably safe to assume those numbers will take a bit of a dip without Stamkos. The Lightning rank seventh in the East in goals against, but that's a little skewed by the fact that Anders Lindback has been an abject disaster in his five starts. Ben Bishop has been much better, and Tampa's defense has actually been really good (second in the East in Corsi against).

Capitals (12-8-1, 25 points, first in Metropolitan)
The Capitals have benefited from being a great shootout team, as they're 5-1 in the game-ending skills competition. They've been a middle-of-the-pack team five-on-five, but they have the best power play and best penalty kill in the Eastern Conference -- it's a testament to their PK that Braden Holtby, who ranks 19th in even-strength percentage, leads the NHL in PK save percentage. Alex Ovechkin is tied for the league lead in goals.

Maple Leafs (12-7-1, 25 points, third in Atlantic)
For the second straight year, the Leafs are defying logic by winning games despite being badly outshot on a nightly basis, as they rank dead last in Corsi percentage for the second year in a row. Without getting too deep into hockey's analytics debate, Corsi has proven to be a pretty good indicator of future success for the most part. The Leafs, however, are a glaring exception. The combination of very good special teams and great goaltending (James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier rank third and fourth, respectively, in save percentage) have helped negate their inability to possess the puck.

(As an aside, the Devils are the anti-Leafs. They rank in the top five in Corsi for the second year in a row, but once again find themselves under .500. Below-average goaltending and a dearth of finishers have been their downfall.)

Red Wings (9-5-7, 25 points, fourth in Atlantic)
The Wings have basically been the definition of average this season. They're 17th in the NHL in offense, 17th in defense, 14th in Corsi percentage and 19th in even-strength goal differential. After a very good 2013 season, Jimmy Howard has been a big disappointment so far this year, as he ranks 32nd in even-strength save percentage. The Wings currently are riding a ridiculous streak of five straight overtime/shootout losses.

Penguins (12-8-0, 24 points, second in Metropolitan)
After leading the NHL in scoring each of the last two seasons, the Penguins rank just 12th this year. Kris Letang missing nine games and James Neal missing 15 are two reasons for the drop-off. Another is that their shooting percentages are down pretty much across the board -- as a team, they've gone from 9.65 percent at five-on-five last year to 7.38 this season. Pittsburgh's defense has been pretty good (third in the East in Corsi against), but Marc-Andre Fleury remains a below-average goalie, as he ranks 26th in even-strength save percentage.

Canadiens (10-9-2, 22 points, fifth in Atlantic)
The Canadiens are weird. They lead the East in Corsi for, but are just 10th in scoring thanks to a dreadful 5.42 even-strength shooting percentage. They're 15th in the East in Corsi against (ahead of only Toronto), but are second in goals against thanks to Carey Price's excellent goaltending (and Peter Budaj's excellent backup goaltending). The Habs are great on special teams, but need to get better five-on-five.

Rangers (10-10-0, 20 points, third in Metropolitan)
The Rangers are third in the East in Corsi percentage, but rank in the middle of the pack in pretty much every other category thanks to a low shooting percentage and surprisingly mediocre goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist. They could be on the verge of really picking it up, though. The returns of Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin and the emergence of Boston College product Chris Kreider have already given the offense a bit of a jolt, and now Rick Nash is set to return this week.

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